Putting things in ‘Order’: Who was there the longest?
Q: Was Jerry Orbach the longest-running actor to play a detective on “Law & Order”? – Scott Ward, Sacramento, Calif.
A: With 11 seasons on the drama as Lennie Briscoe, he was the actor with the longest run on the show as a street detective ... but if you count S. Epatha Merkerson (now working for executive producer Dick Wolf again on NBC’s “Chicago Med”) as headquarters-based Lt. Anita Van Buren, she actually had the record with 16 seasons, the longest any performer was on the series. Thus, she was there even longer than Sam Waterston, whose prosecutor Jack McCoy held forth for 15 years. Some might think the runner-up to Orbach was Chris Noth as Mike Logan, but he had five seasons while Jesse L. Martin’s Ed Green had eight. Of course, if one broadens this out to include other shows in the “Law & Order” franchise, the overall champ is Mariska Hargitay; she’s now in her 22nd season of playing Olivia Benson on NBC’s “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.”
Q: Why was there no “I Love Lucy” Christmas special this time? – Mary Garrett, via e-mail
A: As of this writing, there is no definitive explanation for why CBS didn’t continue that annual tradition last month. It’s not as if the material wasn’t available, obviously – and in fact, half of the show already would have been done well in advance, since the classic sitcom’s Christmas story always makes up the first half of that yearly hour, with another classic episode (which varies from year to year) newly colorized to fill out the special. One hunch we have is that the technicians who normally work on it might not have been available. Colorization is a painstaking process, even in the computer age, since the hues have to be matched accurately in each frame to what they would have been had the footage been in color originally. As might be expected, that’s especially critical when it comes to getting the proper shade of Lucille Ball’s hair. Of course, the ever-popular “Lucy” lives on every weekday on multiple cable networks, but here’s hoping for a return of that typically wellrated holiday showcase at the end of this year.